Up, up and away for Kite Day

CHICO -- An estimated 5,000 people turned out Sunday for what many called the windiest Kite Day in 25 years.

"This is the kind of wind that usually drives people crazy," said organizer Bob Malowney, owner of Bird In Hand. "The wind is gusting kind of like a car, speeding up and slowing down."

The flat, grassy stretch of Community Park became something of a battlefield as anyone passing through was forced to keep a close eye on overhead kites that violently crashed without warning, or thin, taunt strings that slashed left and right.

One flier, Buck Ernest, fought the gusts successfully with a double-spool, high-wind kite until a sudden burst of wind forced it downward, clipping a neighboring kite.

"I cut it, apparently," he said, after apologizing to the flier. "I didn't even see it."

With its string halved, the victimized kite was gone in an instant, blown to an unknown resting place.

It was one of many kite casualties of the day, evidenced by kite pieces forced through the fenced shell of a baseball diamond at the south side of the park, or the numerous kites hanging from trees in the surrounding area.

Despite the wind, many said they preferred too much wind to none at all.

"In the past years, the wind hasn't been enough," said Ernest, who has a decade of Kite Days under his belt and considers himself an avid kite flier. His wife Angie and 1-year-old daughter were with him for their first Kite Day.

More-expensive kites seemed to handle the wind better, with sturdier string spools and thicker wings, but the inexpensive kites were finished before they could begin, rising 20 feet then spinning wildly in circles before nose-diving into the grass.

Malowney said the gusts were the strongest for any Kite Day he could remember in a quarter of a century. "Twelve to 15 miles per hour is the ideal kite-flying wind and this here is up to 20; it makes it difficult for some kites," he said. "Everybody's kite gets up in this wind, it's just a matter of how long they'll stay up."

A group loosely known as the Chico Kiteflyers began an official Kite Day in 1985 with the opening of Community Park. The event occurs annually on the last Sunday in March unless it conflicts with Easter.

March is National Kite Month, according to the American Kitefliers Association.

Staff writer Sarah Kingsbury can be reached at 896-7761 or skingsbury@chicoer.com.